1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a tonneau cover unit that is used to cover-a luggage floor within a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent No. 3227640 describes a retractable tonneau cover that covers a luggage boot (luggage floor) between a rear seat and a hatch of a vehicle. To cover the luggage boot, a cover sheet is pulled out of a housing case, which is arranged on the front side in the luggage boot, to the rear of the luggage boot.
When luggage is loaded into or unloaded from a luggage boot of a vehicle provided with a conventional tonneau cover, a hatch of the vehicle is opened, and a cover sheet is retracted into a housing case by a retracting force of the housing case. Then, loading or unloading of the luggage is performed in a space that is obtained after the cover sheet is retracted into the housing case. After loading or unloading of the luggage is completed, a handle member of the cover sheet is slid toward the rear of the vehicle to cover the luggage boot with the cover sheet. After that, the hatch is closed. As a result, the luggage placed in the luggage boot is invisible from the outside of the vehicle.
To load luggage into or unload luggage from the luggage boot, the hatch needs to be opened and closed. In this case, a user needs to apply a great force and a large space needs to be kept behind the vehicle in order to open and close the hatch. Therefore, it is considerably troublesome for the user to open and close the hatch each time luggage is loaded into or unloaded from the luggage boot.
To alleviate such inconvenience of opening and closing the hatch, a rear window may be provided in the hatch. The rear window is opened in order to load luggage into the luggage boot from the outside of the vehicle. However, the conventional tonneau cover causes the following inconvenience even if the rear window is provided in the hatch. To place the luggage into the luggage boot, the rear window of the hatch is opened, and the cover sheet, which has covered the luggage boot, is retracted into the housing case by a retracting force of the housing case. However, the housing case is usually arranged at a position which the user cannot reach even if he or she reaches his or her hand into the vehicle from the outside of the rear window for the housing case. Therefore, in order to cover the luggage boot with the cover sheet again, the user needs to open the hatch, enter the vehicle up to a position at which he or she can reach the housing case, and pull the cover sheet out of the housing case. After all, provision of the rear window does not save the user from having to do heavy work, that is, opening and closing the hatch.